Give veterans your thanks

Sunday is Veterans Day, born in the aftermath of the paradoxically named "Great War" as Armistice Day, and celebrated in one way or another ever since.

It is fitting that the nation recognizes our veterans. There is indeed something in the American character, in our blood and bones, that wants to acknowledge, honor and give thanks to those who put on a uniform to protect the land of the free.

They are in fact the ones who turn America into the home of the brave.

Veterans Day is set aside to pay tribute to all American veterans, living and dead. But it especially gives thanks to living veterans who served their country honorably during war or peacetime.

While Memorial Day is set aside to remember those brave souls who have fallen in defense of America, and we do our best at that time to do so, Veterans Day is more expansive. Lincoln's words at Gettysburg, "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract," apply to this November remembrance. Veterans Day gives us the opportunity to pay tribute to all those who have served and live among us.

These men and women are not merely sunshine patriots, that class of people known centuries ago to Thomas Paine, who wrote about them during the desperate American Revolution winter of 1776: "The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country," Paine wrote. "But he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman."

The firebrand Paine knew what we know now: That our love and thanks must be for those who in a time of crisis say to themselves, and to their families and friends, "I must do this."

Patriotism these days is all too often merely a word, twisted from its moorings and used to make a bumper-sticker-worthy political point. This day, when we watch soldiers, old ones and young ones, march down Main Street, we see the incarnation of patriotism. We should feel that way, not just on Nov. 11, but throughout the year.

If our understanding of patriotism is heightened by the veterans in our midst, so too is the meaning of the word "courage."

It was writer G.K. Chesterton who said of the mystery that is bravery: "Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live taking the form of readiness to die."

And millions have, over and over again, answered "yes" when their country called them to give what has been called "the last full measure of devotion."

Many veterans do not see themselves as heroes. Yet they are. Many of them bear the wounds and scars of their heroism, simply and humbly. And some of those scars are unseen and hidden away in nightmares and memories.

Give to them this weekend, and during Monday's celebrations, the glory that they never sought, yet is theirs nonetheless.

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Give veterans your thanks

Sunday is Veterans Day, born in the aftermath of the paradoxically named 'Great War' as Armistice Day, and celebrated in one way or another ever since. It is fitting that the nation recognizes our

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